Even if you’re only a one time visitor to NYC, I’m sure you recall seeing loads of double decker tour buses plying the streets. You may not have paid attention to the names emblazoned on the sides but there are differences in style and delivery between all these companies. I normally argue that on many levels, it’s a bad idea to hop aboard one of these prepackaged tours on wheels. There’s no denying that they usually sanitize the City into sound bites and clichés elevating you above the...

... includes 127 acres of Camellia Sinensis tea plants, a working tea factory and a gift shop.
Visitors can learn how tea is made during a factory tour, take a trolley ride through the tea fields, and drink fresh brewed tea. The Charleston Tea Plantation is open year ’round.
The trolley ride is narrated by William Barclay Hall, who founded American Classic Tea in 1987. The Bigelow Family purchased the Charleston Tea Plantation in 2003.
The recorded history of Wadmalaw Island dates back to 1666,...

... to offer every type of traveler. Lounge on the beach, relax by the pool, shop at the boutiques, indulge in world-class international cuisine and tour the famed Miami Beach Art Deco district.
Miami Beach's Art Deco District Illuminated After Dark
Miami Beach’s Architectural Historic District, more commonly known as the Art Deco District (Travel Guide), is the first 20th-century neighborhood to be recognized by the National Register of Historic Places and one of the earliest listings to...

... you step when you’re walking inside the tunnel,” the mining guide warns as I board with little train that will carry me and another group of tourists into the deep tunnel under the mountain.
I’m on my way in one of the tunnels at the Britannia Mine Museum, site of one of British Columbia’s historic landmarks. How many hundreds of times have I passed the site on trips up the Sea to Sky Highway on my way to Squamish or Whistler? But this day I have come for a tour through the new mining...

... plenty more spooky happenings around the city and state.
Here are some suggested haunts for a little spine-tingling October fun:
Seattle Ghost tours: Pike Place Market Ghost tours takes takes you through the Market with accompanying ghost stories of actual events. tours are priced at $15, and occur nightly at 5, 7, 8, and 9 pm. The 5 pm tour is family friendly, and kids 10 and under are FREE). If you grew up around Seattle, some of the stories will sound familiar, but maybe this time you’ll...

Guided tours of National Park Seminary, just north of Washington DC,gives visitors a glance into DC’s rich history through the evolution of a tobacco plantation over a three hundred year period.
Throughout its history, National Seminary Park has been transformed from a plantation, to an exclusive resort hotel and casino for Washington DC’s rich, to an elite all-girls boarding and finishing school, followed by an Army patient rehabilitation center. Today it’s a living museum, Historical...

... to check out the sights and sounds of Hollywood, but until April 2011, you can explore the land of the rich and famous without being confined to a tour bus or standing in a long line. Guests of the Hollywood Heights Hotel (map) have an entirely new way to catch the must-sees and you can earn a free dinner to boot.
Taking a cue from the big family travel trend of geo-caching, families can take participate in Hollywood Heights’ “Hidden Hollywood Scavenger Hunt” to uncover hidden locations...

Eleven Whatcom County farms offer visitors a chance to learn where their food comes from in the 3rd annual Whatcom County Farm tour next weekend. Farms promise that it will be a festive day of fresh flavors and local food exploration in a family-friendly environment.
This sweet little cow delivers milk for drinking and for cheese
The tour is self-guided, so you can pace yourself to see all of the farms or just a few, based upon your available time. Each location will offer special events ranging...

No visit to Boston is complete without touring the historic Freedom Trail, Boston’s signature attraction. The 2 1/2 mile red brick (sometimes red-painted) path wends its way throughout downtown and links 16 sites, covering three-plus centuries of American history.
To see all the sights without rushing, you really need a full day. But you can see the Freedom Trail in half a day if you skip a site or two and focus on what really interests you. Most of the Freedom Trail sites are free-only...

What’s a visit to the region around Bordeaux, France, without a tour through the wineries? Grape Escapes makes it easy for travelers to take wine-tasting breaks with a series of flexible tours.
Based in the riverside city of Bordeaux (map), the new “bespoke breaks” feature guided châteaux tours by day and wine-tasting sessions in traditional bordelaise bars by night. Trips start at £254 per person, and packages are available on week days or weekends year-round.
The tailor-made...

... believe that I was just minutes off a busy and popular highway in Tybee Island, Ga.
And that was just a small sampling of what I discovered on the tour.
It’s a Saturday evening and I’m being led around by a naturalist with Wilderness Southeast (map). Not only am I in awe of my surroundings, but having someone who can explain it all in detail has added tremendously to the experience.
Wilderness Southeast, or WiSE, offers 11 different tours that range from exploring downtown Savannah’s...

... Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area is popular for boating, swimming, water skiing, camping, fishing, and picnicking.
Grand Coulee is open for tours, including an impressive glass elevator ride. The visitor center shows a film about the construction of the dam, so you get a sense of the greatness of this project, and there are many historical photos, scale models, and engineering information about how the turbine engines make the dam work. Note that security restrictions are in effect on...

... I only had 48 hours to visit some of my favorite places and take in a few new sights. Here are my suggestions for anyone on a tight deadline for touring Chi Town in the summer.
I never tire of this magnificent view of downtown Chicago from Lincoln Park Zoo.
One of the newer attractions in the downtown area is Millenium Park (map). An award-winning center for art, music, architecture and landscape design, Millennium Park is a 24.5-acre park that features The Crown Fountain, Cloud Gate and the...

... belts, and screws. Stone ground cornmeal produced on site is available for sale at the Gristmill Shop.
Costumed distillers, mill operators and tour guides work at Mount Vernon’s distillery and gristmill and are available to answer questions. They also, due to a special exception to the Virginia alcohol sales law, are allowed to sell bottles of the limited production George Washington Whiskey at the Mount Vernon Visitor Center.
But finding a bottle is almost impossible. Earlier this month,...

... you may like to slow down in a quieter place. Amersfoort is a medium-sized, typically Dutch city and your perfect escape from Amsterdam’s tourist scene. The city has preserved its medieval character and is a showcase of historic sights. Wander along idyllic canals, through cobbled streets and serene hofjes.
Amersfoort is a compact city and you can see all sights in one day. If you want to visit Amersfoort’s topnotch museums, two days would be perfect. Hop on a train from Amsterdam Centraal...

... Port of London site if you want to do the workings yourself.)
For some people, used to ‘if-this-is-Tuesday-this-must-be-Venice’ style tours, the pace of canal boating can be frustratingly slow. This won’t be the London of the British Museum, Changing the Guard, tea at the Ritz, curry in Brick Lane. It will be different – though you’ll still see Westminster, and there’s nothing stopping you mooring up and taking the bus to the West End. You’ll motor gently...

... far, only two homes are under construction (although the map of the 51 lots shows at least a dozen marked as “sold”). In a clever ploy to entice tourists (and potential land-buyers) up the mountain, the MauiGrown Coffee Company has laid out a self-guided tour of the estate. How could I resist? I picked up a brochure and started off.
First stop was in the area planted with Guatemalan Typica Progeny 502, known as Typica for short. This coffee variety has been grown in Hawaii since 1825. Here,...

We all know guided tours are one of the best ways to see a new city, or to gain a greater insight into a familiar area. However, too often they’re hosted by a boring guide and filled with dull tourists. If you’re looking for a tour with a little more colour, then tours by Diva is for you.
Sydney drag icon Portia Turbo provides “commentary with attitude” on this fabulously fun tour. All the old standards are there: you’ll see the Opera House, Sydney Harbour Bridge, and other city icons....

... where James Drummond Dole first started raising pineapples for U.S. consumption in 1899, you can take a “whistle stop” narrated train tour on the Pineapple Express (pictured) through pineapple fields and learn the history of pineapple cultivation on the Hawaiian islands.
After your ride, take some time to find your way through the Pineapple Garden Maze. It stretches over three acres with nearly two and one-half miles of paths picked through 14,000 colorful Hawaiian plants. The self-guided...